Abstract #191

Section: Swine Species
Session: Swine Species
Format: Oral
Day/Time: Monday 11:15 AM–11:30 AM
Location: Sebastian I-3
# 191
Effect of milky derived flavor inclusion in creep-feed diets on suckling piglet performance and litter homogeneity.
Laia Blavi*1, David Solà-Oriol1, Francisco Javier Crespo2, María del Mar Serra2, José Francisco Pérez1, 1Animal Nutrition and Welfare Service, Department of Animal and Food Sciences, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain, 2Interquim S.A (Ferrer Health Tech), Barcelona, Spain.

Hyper-prolific sows provide a higher number of piglets born per litter and year but, this promotes greater within-litter birth weight variation with high percentage of small animals. It was hypothesized that the inclusion of a milky derived flavor into the creep-feed (CF) would improve the number of eaters, creep-feed intake, piglet performance and litter homogeneity. A total of 35 litters (418 piglets) of Landrace × Large White sows were used. At cross-fostering (max 48 h after birth) all litters were standardized and were distributed into 3 experimental treatments; a basal CF (2480 kcal/kg, 1.53% digestible Lys) diet without flavor (T1), and 2 different milky derived flavors (T2 and T3) according to number of piglets, litter weight and coefficient of variation (CV). Creep-feed was offered from d 2 to d 28 and indigo carmine (5g/kg) was used as indigestible marker to register the number of creep-feed eaters on d 7, 14, 21 and 28. Creep-feed disappearance and individual BW were registered on d 2, 7, 14, 21 and 28 to calculate the within litter CV and the average daily weight gain (ADG) and mortality rate. No differences (P > 0.10) in BW (6.9 kg), CF disappearance (1571 g) and the number of eaters (4.1 piglets per litter) were observed among treatments. However, lower (P < 0.05) CV was observed for piglets fed the T2 (0.16 and 0.17%) than those fed the T3 (0.21 and 0.20%) and T1 (0.25 and 0.26%) diets on d 21 and 28, respectively. In addition, animals categorized as small (<180 g/d at 28 d) in T2 presented higher ADG (P < 0.001) than T1 (153.5 g/d vs 119.1 g/d, respectively from d 0 to 28). Higher (P < 0.01) piglet mortality was observed in litters fed T1 than T2 and T3 (6.9, 3.0 and 4.1%, respectively). These results suggest that the use of a milky derived flavor in the creep-feed improves growth in small piglets and may reduce the CV of the BW within the litters and piglet mortality obtaining higher homogeneity BW at weaning.

Key Words: flavor, creep-feed, piglet